An elderly woman driving down I-80 without headlights was so absorbed in other things that troopers had to set out spikes and blow out her tires to get her to stop.

On Monday, Dec. 2, Penelope Deihl, 83, was so absorbed in her audio book that she forgot to switch on her headlights as she drove west on I-80.

The state patrol were alerted around 6 p.m. about the careless driver, a mile west of Maxwell. A trooper soon pulled in behind Deihl with lights flashing but the elderly woman did not stop. She drove on at 70 miles an hour.

Finally, next to the truck scales just east of North Platte, troopers deployed spikes, flattening two of her tires.

Deihl, who is from Steamboat Springs, Colo., told troopers that she was listening to her book and did not realize her lights were off. She thought the trooper’s lights flashing behind her were from a truck with a wide load.

She was cited for careless driving and driving with no headlights.

Semi-trailers, teen driver

On Thursday, Dec. 5, troopers were called to a semi-tanker that was leaking fuel on State Farm Road in North Platte, just east of the U.S. Highway 83 intersection.

Troopers helped keep traffic away from the truck, while emergency crews handled the leak and fuel on the road.

On the same day, a semi-tractor lost its trailer on U.S. Highway 30 at the west edge of Cozad. The highway was blocked for nearly two hours while the trailer was lifted and moved out of the way. The driver was cited for an improperly secured load.

Around 1 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 6, a trooper spotted a reported stolen car from Utah traveling east on I-80. The trooper stopped the car at the North Platte interchange and found the driver was a 14-year-old boy, a reported runaway. During a routine check, the trooper also found the boy was wanted in connection with a hit-and-run with a semi-truck in Wyoming.

The boy was taken to the juvenile detention center in Gering.

Hi-speed chase

At around midnight on Sunday, Dec. 8, a chase approached 105 miles an hour on a county road near Wauneta.

Trooper chased a car on County Road 745, about 45 miles northwest of McCook, according to the NSP report.

Felix Bruyette, no home address given, was driving the vehicle. When he was finally stopped, Bruyette stopped tried to run away across a field but was soon caught, according the report.